Chinese dinner party help please...

[MTWTFSS]

At the end of August I am hosting a Chinese dinner party.

I know the food will be Chinese, and I will have a red table cloth on the table but how else can I make it more Chinese-y? Looking for decoration and food suggestions please :)

TIA :)

[BrieAndChilli]

Ooh i wat to know too as DD wants a Chinese takeaway for her birthday on Monday!
I was thinking some paper lanterns
Fortune cookies
Chopsticks
Finding some Chinese dragon napkins or such

[TheBobbinIsWound]

I love throwing "themed" dinner parties!
I've never ventured to Chinese however as I can't cook the food!

I am very aware that this may read as inadvertently offensive to an entire culture... I really don't mean to be. Just be grateful you didn't come to my Israeli or my American night!!!

Chinese to me is red and gold and hanging lanterns and mood lighting. Perhaps get some red paper lanterns, attach some gold tassels.

A "moshi" cat would be awesome! (I do t know what they're really called but the ones with the little paws rocking like they're at a gig!)
Chopsticks and chopstick rests.
Willow patterned crockery, little mini soup bowls.

And. If you're visiting my local Chinese- a lazy Susan

[BIWI]

Do you have a Chinese supermarket near you? They often sell decorative stuff - you can also pick up bowls and chopsticks and chopstick stands relatively quickly.

[BIWI]

Relatively cheaply! Chinese supermarkets aren't, to my knowledge, any quicker than British ones

[TheMagicToyshop]

Can you get to a Chinese supermarket? They usually have decorations like paper lanterns and cats that you can buy cheaply. You could also get a set of small bowls, flat spoons, chopsticks and chopstick rests for each guest. Then serve the rice and meat/veg in large dishes so people can fill and refill their bowls.

I'd really recommend the book 'every grain of rice' by Fushia Dunlop for authentic Chinese home cooking, or Ken Hom has great recipes for recreating the Chinese takeaway classics at home.

[TheMagicToyshop]

X post BIWI. I love a Chinese supermarket!

[ladymalfoy]

Beckoning Cat.

[TheBobbinIsWound]

Ooh it a beckoning cat LadyM?

Every day's a school day!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Are you serving banquet type meal (course by course, rice/noodles at the end) or family meal type thing (bung everything down in the middle, sit and eat - my preferred mode)?

Cook five-spice-stewed peanuts as side dish and make your guests eat them with chopsticks. That was our favourite past-time.

[ladymalfoy]

Sorry. Posted too soon.
From the Temple of the Beckoning Cat.
If your nearest shopping centre has one of those Asian Nick nak carts you can get one from there. Depending on how many are coming you could get the Chinese Zodiac charms as a little keep sake maybe?
The cat should face the door I believe,to beckon luck and friends.

[ladymalfoy]

TheBobbin

Pull pull clack clack clack.

You've retired then?

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Yummy peanuts. Unless you have a peanut allergy, I suppose.

[Pootles2010]

Cook this. It takes most of a day, but its the sort of thing you put on then get on with something else.

[MTWTFSS]

Thank you for all your wonderful replies :)

Totally getting a Beckoning Cat- I love them

[HeadDreamer]

If you like to spend, get a set of Chinese or oriental style cutlery? The bowls and plates are different. Chopsticks and chopstick stands. Sauce bowls/plate thingie, they are like tiny tiny pasta bowls. A proper teapot and also oriental style teacups. (They don't have ears). Sainsbury and waitrose both sells them.

[HeadDreamer]

Well technically Chinese tea cups have handles. Japanese ones don't. But it's more exotic to get the Japanese ones

[Allalonenow]

Serve soup throughout the meal rather than as a single course as is done here. A soup based on a good stock with finely sliced vegetables added works best for this.

Get a selection of dipping sauces, plum, sweet chilli, dark soy etc.

Serve dim sum with pre dinner drinks.

Decorate your main dishes with carved vegetables, or if time is short, with tassels of spring onions cut then kept in iced water to curl them.

[cdtaylornats]

Crispy duck - the main supermarkets do excellent ones

[whois]

Mmmm can I come?

[alphabettyspaghetty]

Bbc good food does a lively sweet chilli crispy beef which is really good.

Aim for a good fried rice and noodles

[UptoapointLordCopper]

If you do cold dishes you can do them ahead of time and be more relaxed. Drunken chicken, sichuan "mouth-watering" chicken, Cantonese pickled vegetables, the magical sichuan potato salad, black fungus salad etc etc. Yum!!!!

[mairimack]

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/aromaticporkbellyhot_10468

this is lovely and can be made ahead

[pinkisthenewpink]

yuk sung is lovely as a starter and really handy for a dinner party as you can cook it all beforehand and then just nuke the pork in the microwave to reheat it. I've used Turkey or chicken mince before too, as my dh doesn't like pork. Including the wet ingredients and the water chestnuts is very important, but I don't use celery.

Won tun soup is a good starter too and again the soup base and the dumplings can be made ahead of time, then just boil together when you're ready to serve. Need to have a Chinese supermarket where you can buy the won tun wrappers. Actually in a Chinese supermarket you can buy the won tun dumplings pre-prepared and then you just make a stock (chicken stock with spring onions and bit of shredded ginger and pepper).

I would have:
Prawn crackers (buy from Chinese supermarket and cook them few hours before)
Starter 1 - Won tun soup
Starter 2 - yuk sung
Main course -
egg fried rice (cooked ahead of time)
ginger, garlic chicken (can be cooked ahead of time)
Roast pork belly or char Sui (pork fillet) (in oven so not too much last minute faffing)
Veg dish (stir fried pak choi, beansprouts and mange tout with garlic and ginger) (last minute but very quick)

Pudding - pineapple carpaccio and mint sugary stuff (Jamie Oliver recipe....just very thinly sliced pineapple) with some coconut ice cream and/or mango sorbet

Does take a loooot of pre-prep but that menu is doable and able to still speak to you guests!!!

[Eminybob]

If you search for Chinese decorations on Amazon there's loads of stuff on there

I made sweet and sour chicken from the Hairy Dieters book the other day, and although it's a low cal version it tasted remarkably like the real thing.

[mrspremise]

IKEA do a big lazy susan. Chopsticks in individual wrappers are cheap on eBay. Firtune cookies (look up a recipe online and put your own bespoke messages in) they're not really that difficult, if you have time...

I want a beckoning cat